Glenbard South's Riley claims 400th win

Heading into last Wednesday's Western Sun Conference game against Yorkville, Glenbard South baseball coach Mike Riley faced an interesting situation.

His career record stood at 399 wins and 299 losses.

Something had to give.

"At the end of the day, I knew I'd either be sitting on 400 wins or 300 losses," he said with a laugh.

At week's end he was still sitting on 299 losses -- and well on his way to 500 wins.

The Raiders' 15-5 win over the Foxes provided Riley a milestone moment in his 22-year varsity coaching career. He began as a lower-level coach at Hinsdale Central, and after four years became the head coach at Rockford West.

When Rockford West closed three years later, Riley coached at Rockford Guilford for 10 years before becoming Glenbard South's coach nine years ago.

Instead of focusing on his past success, however, Riley prefers to look forward.

"You reflect a little bit but you're still looking mainly at the future," he said. "Hopefully, we can get a lot more wins and achieve some goals -- especially in the state tournament."

Heading into this week's league series against Kaneland the Raiders' record stood at 6-3 overall and 3-0 in conference. Senior catcher Joe Biagini has powered the offense, batting .556 with 3 homers and 12 RBI.

With other solid hitters like Franz Merkendorfer and Doug Anderson in the lineup, the Raiders are making things tough on opposing pitching.

"Biagini's been murdering the ball," Riley said. "And we've got other kids who are also hitting, so teams can't pitch around him."

Spring braking: Spring break is typically a time when teams schedule a week filled with morning varsity-junior varsity doubleheaders to take advantage of the time off.

All innings are quality innings this early in the season. That's especially true after teams are locked inside gyms for most of the preseason due to the wintry weather.

The varsity-junior varsity doubleheaders provide an ideal opportunity for nearly every player to get on the field, but spring break turned out a little different this season.

Because the breaks didn't coincide for many teams the last two weeks -- one school was on break, but the other was still in school -- teams had to forgo the doubleheaders and play a single game at the normal weekday starting time of 4:30 p.m.

At a crucial time of year, when coaches are trying to figure out lineups, taking away that extra playing time during the JV game caused some frustrations.

"It's unfortunate because you want to get those innings in," said Wheaton Warrenville South coach Tim Brylka. "You get a chance to see everyone. We don't have our lineup set right now, so it gives us a chance to clarify things a little bit."

Glory days: First-year Downers Grove South coach Darren Orel played a key role as a catcher during Thornwood's span of excellence in the early 1990s.

He had some pretty good company, too.

Orel, a 1994 graduate, was a freshman when Cliff Floyd was a senior leading the Thunderbirds to the 1991 state title. Floyd, who played for the Cubs last year, is with the Tampa Bay Rays.

"When you watched that kid play it was unbelievable," said Orel, who went on to play at Elmhurst College. "You could tell he was special."

Orel, however, had a different opinion on another high school teammate -- St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Mark Mulder, who's a year younger than Orel. The duo helped lead Thornwood to a third-place state finish in 1994.

Mulder didn't have the same "wow" factor as Floyd, Orel said, but the lefty was still drafted in the 55th round by the Detroit Tigers. Mulder didn't sign, choosing instead to attend Michigan State. When Orel worked out with Mulder in the off-season a couple of years later, Orel noticed a big change.

In 1998 Mulder was the Oakland A's first-round pick -- the second pick overall in the amateur draft.

"It was a little more quiet with him," Orel said. "But when I caught him after he came back from Michigan State, that's when I saw how nasty he was."